Walgreens is moving to expand the availability of rapid COVID-19 testing.
The drug store company plans to open 15 drive-thru testing sites for the virus across Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas, starting later this week. The sites will utilise Abbott’s new ID NOW COVID-19 test, which delivers positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results within 13 minutes.
The 15 locations are being finalised in collaboration with the US Department of Health and Human Services, and are planned for select “hot spot” markets with escalating numbers of COVID-19 cases. Walgreens expects to test up to 3,000 people per day across these additional sites.
Walgreens said it will dedicate temporary space at select locations, outside of the stores, for the test sites, with company pharmacists overseeing the testing. Patients will be directed to testing locations via an online assessment tool that will be available on Walgreens.com and Walgreens mobile app.
